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Yuri Network News – August 21, 2010

August 21st, 2010

Event News

For folks in Florida looking for something to do *this* weekend,* YNN Correspondent Katherine H. is running a Yuri panel at Mizucon in Miami on Sunday, August 22 at 10AM. She’s pretty awesome, so please join her and show your support!

New York Anime Festival has not approved a Yuri panel (feel free to write them and ask for one to be included) but I will be part of a LGBT comics and manga panel at the event. That panel is being run by a librarian, and seems to be pretty librarian-filled (including myself) so I’m thrilled to be a part of it. Please take a look at the NYAF schedule and join us for a non-otaku approach to things like BL/Yaoi and GL/Yuri.

This is not Yuri-specific, but I have a friend who runs the comic book store everyone wishes existed somewhere: Comic Fusion in Flemington, NJ. The store itself is not huge, well-lit, with big pluffy chairs, but the people are friendly, welcoming, part of the community in a way that comic book stores never are. They look up and say “hello” when you walk in. :-) On October 24, 2010, Comic Fusion runs Superhero weekend, featuring Wonder Woman Day. If this isn’t of interest to Yuri fans, I don’t know what is! People come by in costume, they do a silent auction to raise money for a local battered women’s shelter…. It’s an awesome thing. I hope you’ll drop by.

Let me disclaimer about MangaNEXT. I was on the original organizing committee for this event. I have *very* strong feelings about where it should go and what it should do and have, for this reason, avoided being involved with it up until now. I volunteered this year to provide their social media.

I have of course applied to run a Yuri panel there, and also panels on how to read manga (you know my rant about how manga readers read badly…) and how to talk to publishers. Not sure yet whether any or all of them will be accepted.

But that’s not what I wanted to say. I wanted to tell you that comic LEGEND Lea Hernandez will be there. She will likely be running an intensive comics creation class, from blank paper to full story and if you every thought to yourself that you’d like to be a professional artist, you should really sign up for this.

MangaNEXT also has as guests illustrators Juri H. and Dirk I. Tiede and oh my fucking god, filmmaker Nina Paley. Sita Sings the Blues Nina Paley. I know that most of you do not know why this is an OMFG moment, so just go watch the movie. PLEASE. It’s free, online for FREE. It’s genius. Please, just go watch it. Then take a deep breath, blow your nose and think, “O.M.F.G!” and register for MangaNEXT. ‘Kay? Thanks.

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Yuri Manga

Once more on the topic of the Shoujo manga Magazine Yuri Watch, Katherine wants to be the first to let you know that the first volume of Blue Friends is up for pre-order on Amazon JP. Get it while it’s still vaguely Yuri! :-)

Much more Yuri and more satisfying is Mitsue Aoki’s first all-Yuri manga collection, Princess Princess. She was all excited by it, I’m happy for her and for us!

Tokimeki Mononoke Gakuen continues in the current issue of Comic Yuri Hime, and Volume 2 is on the shelves and waiting to be bought! YNN Correspondent Erin S tell us that this is the end of the series, so you don’t want to miss it!

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Other News

Because I can’t stop myself from talking about Twitter, here’s a new resource I’ve found for those of you who like to stare at manga artists’ Tweets – Tanbishugi has an enormous lists of Japanese manga artists who are on Twitter. Some might surprise you. If you do decide to follow any of them, try not to be weird, okay? And if any follow you back, remember to say thanks! ^_^

Have I mentioned my recent obsession with manga that passes the Bechdel test? If I haven’t, let me mention it right now, because I need your help. As you may know, I write a monthly column on The Comics Journal’s Hooded Utilitarian. I try to have topics lined up a few months in advance so we don’t get to the last week of the month and I start running around the house screaming OH MY GOD!!! I NEED A COLUMN!

Well, one of my future columns will be about manga that passes the Bechdel test. The rules are deceptively easy: Mo, from Dykes to Watch Out For would only see a movie in which the following three criteria were filled: (1) it has to have at least two women in it, who (2) who talk to each other, about (3) something besides a man. Movies notoriously fail to meet these minimal criteria. Manga, actually, meets and exceeds them. To limit the things I’m talking about, I want to talk about the spirit of the Test, not just the letter. In effect – not just manga that technically meets these criteria, but might be something Mo or I (i.e., an adult, out, lesbian) might be interested in watching/reading.

So, while Strike Witches, or Ooku *technically* fit the criteria…neither really suit the spirit of the Test. (There’s a back story here, which I’ll tell you in the HU article. Trust me for the moment.)

I’m not looking for Yuri specifically, (in fact, most Yuri fails as being girls obsessing about other girls endlessly) if you can think of a manga that features adult women who discuss more than just men (or women) then by all means suggest them in the comments. I have a list already, but your help is much appreciated!

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That’s a wrap for this week.

Become a Yuri Network Correspondent by sending me any Yuri-related news you find. Emails go to anilesbocon01 at hotmail dot com. Not to the comments here, please, or they might be forgotten or missed. There’s a reason for this madness. This way I know you are a real human, not Anonymous (which I do not encourage – stand by your words with your name!) and I can send you a YNN correspondent’s badge.

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4 Responses

Just a note of caution: there is also a manga called Princess Princess by Mikiyo Tsuda. It is not Yuri (though that depends on your definitions). It might be yaoi (though that also depends on your definitions). It does play with gender roles.

Volume 2 is the end of Tokimeki Mononoke Jogakuen. It will contain a final chapter not published in Yuri Hime.Nangoku has stated on her blog that she would like to draw Yuri again in the future, but not necessarily for the same magazine.

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Erica Friedman is the Founder of Yuricon, ALC Publishing and Yurikon LLC, Social Media Without Delusion. LGBTQ and Geek Marketing Consultant. Proud to be a MLS.
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